Inside the Virtual Robotics Challenge: Simulating Real-Time Robotic Disaster Response

Abstract

This paper presents the software framework established to facilitate cloud-hosted robot simulation. The framework addresses the challenges associated with conducting a task-oriented and real-time robot competition, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Virtual Robotics Challenge (VRC), designed to mimic reality. The core of the framework is the Gazebo simulator, a platform to simulate robots, objects, and environments, as well as the enhancements made for the VRC to maintain a high fidelity simulation using a high degree of freedom and multisensor robot. The other major component used is the CloudSim tool, designed to enhance the automation of robotics simulation using existing cloud technologies. The results from the VRC and a discussion are also detailed in this work. Note to Practitioners-Advances in robot simulation, cloud hosted infrastructure, and web technology have made it possible to accurately and efficiently simulate complex robots and environments on remote servers while providing realistic data streams for human-in-the-loop robot control. This paper presents the software and hardware frameworks established to facilitate cloud-hosted robot simulation, and addresses the challenges associated with conducting a task-oriented robot competition designed to mimic reality. The competition that spurred this innovation was the VRC, a precursor to the DARPA Robotics Challenge, in which teams from around the world utilized custom human-robot interfaces and control code to solve disaster response-related tasks in simulation. Winners of the VRC received both funding and access to Atlas, a humanoid robot developed by Boston Dynamics. The Gazebo simulator, an open source and high fidelity robot simulator, was improved upon to met the needs of the VRC competition. Additionally, CloudSim was created to act as an interface between users and the cloud-hosted simulations.

Computer Simulation of Human-Robot Collaboration in the Context of Industry Revolution 4.0

“…In relation to humanoid robot, one of the potential applications of Cloud technology is to provide collective robot learning, that is, robot sharing trajectories, control policies, and outcome [74]. One good practical example of Cloud technology application in humanoid robot is in the development of simulation of humanoid robot to complete certain tasks [75] which is part of the DARPA virtual robotic challenge. In [75], the existing Cloud technology was combined with Gazebo simulator for simulating humanoid robot.…”

Real-Time Multisensor Data Retrieval for Cloud Robotic Systems

“…• The "cloud-based robot grasping" [26] used the Google Object Recognition Engine to recognize and grasp common household objects. • Carlos et al presented a software framework to facilitate cloud-hosted robot simulations that addressed the challenge of real-time task-oriented robot competition [27]. • Gouveia et al proposed two distributed architecture for the SLAM problem, and analyzed their efficiency, precision, and accuracy [28].…”

Cloud Robotics: Current Status and Open Issues

“…To explore the benefits of cloud-based technologies for sensing, Mohanarajah et al [14] presented a cloud-based collaborative visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM) system consisting of low-cost robots and remote Amazon servers, which allows real-time map estimation through parallel computing and implements a highly sophisticated system using low-cost components, thus lowering the technological threshold for further research. Additionally, Agüero et al [15], through their participation at an open competition, presented a software framework for cloud-hosted robot simulation aimed at advancing robotic systems dealing with disaster response.…”